SHEBOYGAN - Incumbent Devin LeMahieu and Kyle Whelton are vying for the District 9 seat in the state Senate in the Nov. 6 midterm election.

These candidates have filled out a candidate survey provided by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin to give our readers a taste of who they are and what they stand for.

Voters must be registered and provide a photo ID, such as a driver's license or Wisconsin Department of Transportation identification card, when voting. To register, people can go online at myvote.wi.gov and provide proof of residence.

Devin LeMahieu(Photo: Douglas Sonders)

Devin LeMahieu

Political affiliation: Republican

Age: 46

Political experience: State Senator, four years; Sheboygan County Board supervisor, nine years

Professional/work experience and education: Owner and publisher of the Lakeshore Weekly. Bachelor's degrees in business administration and political science, Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa.

Personal information: Single

Why are you running? As a small business owner and property taxpayer, I’m excited about the direction Wisconsin is headed. We have experienced eight consecutive months of record low unemployment. There are a record number of people working in Wisconsin. There are 5,500 more people working in Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Calumet counties than there were three years ago. And most importantly, wages are rising.

Over the last four years we’ve reduced government red tape, held the line on property taxes, simplified the tax code, and made huge investments in public education as well as local roads and bridges. We did all of this in a fiscally responsible manner: We reduced new borrowing to the lowest amount in the last 20 years, improved the state’s credit rating, and built the largest rainy-day fund in state history.

I’m running to make sure we can continue moving Wisconsin forward. I can offer a unique perspective in Madison as a small business owner in Sheboygan County for the last 13 years. As a business owner, I understand how decisions in Madison affect businesses. It’s vitally important that Wisconsin continues to provide an environment that incentivizes economic growth benefiting both employers and employees.

Now is not the time to go back to when Wisconsin was one of the top 10 taxed states and property taxes were jumping every year. It is not time to go back to the days where the state was running deficits, playing accounting games and raiding the transportation fund.

What’s the key issue in this race for you? Wisconsin’s exceptionally low unemployment rate is leading to a shortage of qualified workers. Next session, the primary focus needs to be workforce development. This includes giving schools the tools they need to meet the demands of the workforce such as high-tech Fab Labs, connecting schools and technical colleges with business, increasing internet/broadband access in under served areas of Wisconsin, and recruiting and retaining talented individuals to fill the labor demand.

Additionally, we need to focus on mental health. Over the last four years, great work has been done to try to fight the opioid epidemic through the HOPE (Heroin, Opioid Prevention and Education) Agenda, including investments in TAD (Treatment and Addiction) courts that emphasize rehabilitation over incarceration for first-time offenders. Unfortunately, there are still too many Wisconsin families that are unable to access mental health services. Two years ago, I authored a bill giving more flexibility to public schools to provide mental health services to students. This new law is just a start, and more needs to be done.

Finally, I will continue to focus on improving Wisconsin’s tax climate. Great improvements have been made over the last four years including simplifying the tax code, reducing income taxes and repealing the state property tax. However, our work is not done. For example, we should fully repeal the personal property tax, which hurts small, Main Street businesses. We also need to help Wisconsin homeowners, especially those on fixed incomes, by continuing to hold the line on property taxes.

During the last four years I had the opportunity to author 33 bills that were signed into law. Twenty-eight of these bills received bipartisan support. Ideas for these bills came from constituents such as local non-profits, area elected officials, and simply concerned citizens who wanted government to work more effectively for them. I look forward to another four years serving the citizens of Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Calumet counties.

Kyle Whelton(Photo: Submitted)

Kyle Whelton

Political affiliation: Democrat

Age: 25

Political experience: School board member, 2017-present

Professional/work experience and education: IT project manager at Epic Systems and Acuity Insurance. Sheboygan North High and Etude High School, Marquette University (bachelor's degree).

Personal information: I was born and raised in Sheboygan, one of four kids. I am single with no children, but I have a 2-1/2-year-old niece who is my goddaughter and the light of my life.

Why are you running? I am running this year because Wisconsin is in trouble. Our public schools are woefully underfunded, we have some of the worst roads in the nation, young people are leaving Wisconsin in droves, and we rank dead last in new business startup activity. Instead of investing in the structures that allow communities to grow, businesses to develop and families to thrive, Madison has poured billions of taxpayer dollars into a foreign corporation, neglected our roads and played political games with our health care. I am running to bridge the political divide so that Wisconsin properly funds our public schools, invests in skills training, expands access to quality, affordable health care, and fixes our crumbling roads and bridges.

What's the key issue in this race for you? As I have gone around knocking on doors in the communities throughout this district, the No. 1 concern I hear is parents worried about their public schools. As a school board member, I share that same concern because I know firsthand how damaging the cuts to education have been to our schools. Enrollment in teacher preparation programs in Wisconsin is down 28 percent in the last 10 years, 1 in 5 new teachers leaves the profession in their first five years, class sizes are going up, teacher morale is down, and districts are continuously going to referendum just to keep their buildings safe and up to code. The last budget gave some money back to public schools that was desperately needed, but it was far short of all the funding lost from 2011-2017, and it shows. Forty-four percent of Wisconsinites believe that their public schools are worse than they were just a few years ago, and it is because we have not invested in them. We need to fully fund public education, expand skills training in our high schools, and ensure that our districts have the tools and resources to attract and retain high-quality teachers so that every child has a great education and a shot at the middle class.